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For those who have wondered about my whereabouts of late, I can assure you I am still here. Half Classic Six has admittedly been on an unofficial hiatus of late, but there is progress and a lot of really huge changes coming over the next six months.

Today marks three years since we signed the contract for our apartment and three years since I started this blog to document our experience. It had only been a few weeks since our Manhattan Real Estate Shotgun Wedding, and were so very excited (and grateful) to have found our gem, a nice sized one bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Looking back at our hopes and dreams for our home at the time,

[Photo: This is Nanna Zelda. She is that family member who always knows better and is the first to tell you what you should do in all situations. She is the overseer of the kitchen and will hold a prominent spot on the wall by the window. Really, she is an amazing $41 find on Ebay.]

I mentioned last week that I needed to make the sink wall the priority in order to return to a functioning (if not finished) kitchen. This past two weeks has forced me to tap into my inner perfectionist in ways I had not anticipated.

[Photo: This Tiffany blue marble was found amongst the debris under the floor, perhaps a child found a secret passageway to the underworld long long ago.]

I am beyond excited to say that as of Monday Morning, we were tile ready. But OMG what a hell of a three weeks it has been getting to this point. Last week’s progress report was titled Subfloor on Subfloor because when I started writing it, I expected that we would have finished installing the new subfloor by the end of the last Sunday in February. Boy was I wrong… Very very wrong.

[Photo: One of the areas where we had to replace the 1x4s with plywood. All of the boards in this patch were totally rotten.]

Last week in our first kitchen progress report I gave a brief recent back-story on our kitchen floors, followed by an update from the previous weekend’s adventure. Another week has passed and there is progress, but as usual, there are also hiccups.

In December and January, I went over the final details of our kitchen renovation and shared our excitement that this really was finally happening. And now that the tile and cabinets have arrived (having filled up our entry hall), its time to follow up on a promise that I would do a post about the budget, and here it is…. First thing to remember… Setting location aside, kitchens are expensive! And when you factor in our location, it can become downright frightening.

As we get closer and closer to finally starting our kitchen renovation after many, many, many delays, we are finding that there has been an unexpected benefit to having postponed our renovation for so long. That unexpected benefit is that with each delay comes continued insight to plan as it relates to materials resulting in a much more refined final look which we would never have done had we just gone with our initial plans.

[Mott’s Modern Plumbing Catalog from 1910. This would have certainly been a fancy kitchen in 1910, but it is still quite utilitarian compared to the “Old World” style kitchens we see today. Image: NYPL]

Kitchen floors and walls….. Using common tile and elevating it to classy and timeless.

[Update at bottom] As the plans for our kitchen renovation are forming and the anticipated start date of August (October/November-ish) (January-February 2016) is getting closer,

OK… So I know I promised that I would have a full reveal of the living room last week, and I shot a bunch of pictures with my trusty iPhone… But after looking at the photos, it was clear that they didn’t quite capture what I was hoping to convey. Mea culpa…. Oy!

It was obvious to me that I needed to re-shoot the room and use a better camera to better capture the space.

Half Classic Six is officially on hiatus. We traded in our New York life for an 1852 rowhouse in Philadelphia. Follow along with our new adventures at: OurPhillyRow.com

Hi, my name is Devyn. This was my blog about the adventures of finding, buying, renovating, fixing up, restoring, DIY'ing, and decorating a part of New York housing legacy.
We have left NYC for a new life in Philadelphia. Visit my new blog Our Philly Row and read all about our "fixer-upper-ing" an 1852 rowhouse

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